Grid operator Southwest Power Pool (SPP) said Wednesday that it would cost up to $2.9 billion a year to develop a regional plan to comply with President Obama’s proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP) that the federal Environmental Protection Agency is expected to hand down later this summer.

The Little Rock grid operator said in a statement that a regional compliance approach to cut carbon emissions by 30% at existing power plants from 2005 levels by 2030 is doable, but at a cost of nearly $3 billion annually – based on estimated capital investment and energy production costs across SPP’s regional footprint.